BILL NUMBER: AB 1655	CHAPTERED  09/23/99

	CHAPTER   469
	FILED WITH SECRETARY OF STATE   SEPTEMBER 23, 1999
	APPROVED BY GOVERNOR   SEPTEMBER 23, 1999
	PASSED THE ASSEMBLY   AUGUST 26, 1999
	PASSED THE SENATE   AUGUST 24, 1999
	AMENDED IN SENATE   JULY 12, 1999
	AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY   APRIL 19, 1999

INTRODUCED BY   Assembly Member Hertzberg

                        MARCH 9, 1999

   An act to amend Section 62.9 of the Labor Code, relating to
occupational safety and health.


	LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


   AB 1655, Hertzberg.  Occupational safety and health standards:
variances:  assessments.
   Existing law authorizes employers to apply to the Occupational
Health and Safety Standards Board (the board) for a permanent
variance from an occupational safety and health standard, order,
special order, or portion thereof, upon a showing of an alternate
program, method, practice, means, device, or process that will
provide equal or superior safety to employees.  Existing law requires
the board to issue those variances, after opportunity for an
investigation, if it determines on the record, after an investigation
where appropriate and a hearing, that the proponent of the variance
has demonstrated by a preponderance of the evidence that certain
conditions relating to the safety and health of employees are met.
   This bill would require the Occupational Safety and Health
Standards Board, on or before April 1, 2000, to report to the
Legislature on the nature and the extent of investigations conducted
pursuant to those provisions.
   Existing law authorizes the levy and collection of assessments
from employers to fund the Cal-OSHA targeted inspection and
consultation programs.  This authorization will be repealed on
January 1, 2000, unless extended by statute.
   This bill would delete the January 1, 2000, repeal date for the
above authorization for employer assessments.


THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:


  SECTION 1.  On or before April 1, 2000, the Occupational Safety and
Health Standards Board shall report to the Legislature on the nature
and the extent of investigations conducted pursuant to subdivision
(b) of Section 143 of the Labor Code.
  SEC. 2.  Section 62.9 of the Labor Code is amended to read:
   62.9.  (a) (1) The director shall levy and collect assessments
from employers in accordance with this section.  The total amount of
the assessment collected shall be the amount determined by the
director to be necessary to produce the revenue sufficient to fund
the programs specified by Section 62.7, except that the amount
assessed in any year for those purposes shall not exceed 50 percent
of the amounts appropriated from the General Fund for the support of
the occupational safety and health program for the 1993-94 fiscal
year, adjusted for inflation.  The director also shall include in the
total assessment amount the department's costs for administering the
assessment, including the collections process and the cost of
reimbursing the Franchise Tax Board for its cost of collection
activities pursuant to subdivision (c).
   (2) The insured employers and private sector self-insured
employers that, pursuant to subdivision (b), are subject to
assessment shall be assessed, respectively, on the basis of their
annual payroll subject to premium charges or their annual payroll
that would be subject to premium charges if the employer were
insured, as follows:
   (A) An employer with a payroll of less than two hundred fifty
thousand dollars ($250,000) shall be assessed one hundred dollars
($100).
   (B) An employer with a payroll of two hundred fifty thousand
dollars ($250,000) or more, but not more than five hundred thousand
dollars ($500,000), shall be assessed two hundred dollars ($200).
   (C) An employer with a payroll of more than five hundred thousand
dollars ($500,000), but not more than seven hundred fifty thousand
dollars ($750,000), shall be assessed four hundred dollars ($400).
   (D) An employer with a payroll of more than seven hundred fifty
thousand dollars ($750,000), but not more than one million dollars
($1,000,000), shall be assessed six hundred dollars ($600).
   (E) An employer with a payroll of more than one million dollars
($1,000,000), but not more than one million five hundred thousand
dollars ($1,500,000), shall be assessed eight hundred dollars ($800).

   (F) An employer with a payroll of more than one million five
hundred thousand dollars ($1,500,000), but not more than two million
dollars ($2,000,000), shall be assessed one thousand dollars
($1,000).
   (G) An employer with a payroll of more than two million dollars
($2,000,000), but not more than two million five hundred thousand
dollars ($2,500,000), shall be assessed one thousand five hundred
dollars ($1,500).
   (H) An employer with a payroll of more than two million five
hundred thousand dollars ($2,500,000), but not more than three
million five hundred thousand dollars ($3,500,000), shall be assessed
two thousand dollars ($2,000).
   (I) An employer with a payroll of more than three million five
hundred thousand dollars ($3,500,000) shall be assessed two thousand
five hundred dollars ($2,500).
   (b) (1) In the manner as specified by this section, the director
shall identify those insured employers having a workers' compensation
experience modification rating of 1.25 or more, and private sector
self-insured employers having an equivalent experience modification
rating of 1.25 or more as determined pursuant to subdivision (e).
   (2) The assessment required by this section shall be levied
annually, on a calendar year basis, on those insured employers and
private sector self-insured employers, as identified pursuant to
paragraph (1), having the highest workers' compensation experience
modification ratings or equivalent experience modification ratings,
that the director determines to be required numerically to produce
the total amount of the assessment to be collected pursuant to
subdivision (a).
   (c) The director shall collect the assessment from insured
employers as follows:
   (1) Upon the request of the director, the Department of Insurance
shall direct the licensed rating organization designated as the
department's statistical agent to provide to the director, for
purposes of subdivision (b), a list of all insured employers having a
workers' compensation experience rating modification of 1.25 or
more, according to the organization's records at the time the list is
requested, for policies commencing the year preceding the year in
which the assessment is to be collected.
   (2) The director shall determine the annual payroll of each
insured employer subject to assessment from the payroll that was
reported to the licensed rating organization identified in paragraph
(1) for the most recent period for which one full year of payroll
information is available for all insured employers.
   (3) On or before September 1 of each year, the director shall
determine each of the current insured employers subject to
assessment, and the amount of the total assessment for which each
insured employer is liable.  The director immediately shall notify
each insured employer, in a format chosen by the insurer, of the
insured's obligation to submit payment of the assessment to the
director within 30 days after the date the billing was mailed, and
warn the insured of the penalties for failure to make timely and full
payment as provided by this subdivision.
   (4) The director shall identify any insured employers that, within
30 days after the mailing of the billing notice, fail to pay, or
object to, their assessments.  The director shall mail to each of
these employers a notice of delinquency and a notice of the intention
to assess penalties, advising that, if the assessment is not paid in
full within 15 days after the mailing of the notices, the director
will levy against the employer a penalty equal to 25 percent of the
employer's assessment, and will refer the assessment and penalty to
the Franchise Tax Board for collection.  The notices required by this
paragraph shall be sent by United States first-class mail.
   (5) If an assessment is not paid by an insured employer within 15
days after the mailing of the notices required by paragraph (4), the
director shall refer the delinquent assessment and the penalty to the
Franchise Tax Board for collection pursuant to Section 19290.1 of
the Revenue and Taxation Code.
   (d) The director shall collect the assessment directly from
private sector self-insured employers.  The failure of any private
sector self-insured employer to pay the assessment as billed
constitutes grounds for the suspension or termination of the employer'
s certificate to self-insure.
   (e) The director shall adopt regulations implementing this section
that include provision for a method of determining experience
modification ratings for private sector self-insured employers that
is generally equivalent to the modification ratings that apply to
insured employers and is weighted by both severity and frequency.
   (f) The director shall determine whether the amount collected
pursuant to any assessment exceeds expenditures, as described in
subdivision (a), for the current year and shall credit the amount of
any excess to any deficiency in the prior year's assessment or, if
there is no deficiency, against the assessment for the subsequent
year.
